Sword & Sorcery Novels You May Have Missed II

This post is brought to you by Bearshirt #5: The Beacon House and Other Stories by G. W. Thomas. It is actually a little strange to feature a collection of stories when the post is about S&S novels. This is alright because there are four Arthan novels that came before this volume. This new book is a nice sampler for the longer pieces if you are feeling reluctant. The six stories are set in Arthan’s youth when he was an inexperienced bear of seventeen. (The idea was inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Jungle Tales of Tarzan.) The book include a 19,000 word novella called “Descent” for those that like a longer tale.

It’s almost Summer and that’s when I like to read Fantasy. (That wonderful time between Halloween and Christmas is when I read mostly Horror and ghost stories. I am quite seasonal at times.) As a kid I would set up my tent in the backyard, listen to Yes and Jethro Tull and read big, fat Fantasy novels. I was young so my choices were non-judgmental. I remember enjoying Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara while The Lord of the Rings was too difficult. (I tried Shannara again last year and only got half way. Not really a fan anymore. The curse of getting older, I suppose.)

Quest of the Dark Lady

My choices are usually books that I saw or have even owned but never got around to reading. The first is one of the Lancer knock-offs that exploded in 1969-1973. Which isn’t to say that it is a bad book, only that the publisher had certain goals in publishing it. The book is Quest of the Dark Lady by Quinn Reade (Ben Haas), originally published by Belmont Books in 1969. I read the 1976 reprint version with the ruined Jeff Jones cover for a different book and sixteen pages of garbage filler. Again, Belmont trying to cash in.

The story has a band of fighters under Captain Wulf, a man exiled for betraying his king, going to the Terrible East to retrieve the Dark Lady. The ruler, Langax, lies dying from sorcery. If Wulf and his companions can get the Lady, she can cure him for there is a powerful spell on her that gives her magic to her husband. The questers have to cross a strange belt filled with monsters to get to the East. There they are captured in the deadly desert but succeed in convincing the Dark Lady to betray her husband and go West. Everyone finds out in the end that Wulf had not really betrayed the king but was working in secret. For a fuller description, go here.

Ben Haas wrote three S&S pieces. The other two are related while Quest of the Dark Lady is a standalone. Haas wrote Westerns under the name Richard Meade, the same name he used for The Sword of Morning Star (1969) and Exile’s Quest (1970) so in a sense Quinn Reade was a one-hit wonder. Haas’s background in Westerns comes through at times. I would stop and ask myself, could this be translated into a Western? The answer is yes and no. Some of the situations are familiar. You could replace the warriors of The Terrible East with Native Americans. But then there are also fantastical elements that would not work. Ultimately, Hass wrote a tight little Heroic Fantasy that deserved more applause than it received.

Conquerors From the Darkness

The Conquerors From the Darkness (1965) by Robert Silverberg was re-released in 1979 along with Master of Life and Death (1957). The uncredited cover (filtered through Frank Frazetta) says, “Hey, this is Sword & Sorcery” by Robert Silverberg! Which is mostly a lie. This novel, along with Poul Anderson’s “Witch of the Demon Seas” (Planet Stories, January 1951) retitled “Demon Journey” for Swords Against Tomorrow (1970) edited by Bob Hoskins, are two Sword & Planet pieces that S&S fans will enjoy. They both feature some very Conan-like action on far planets. If you squint, you can ignore the SF elements. They are also both very fun reads in a Leigh Brackett style, especially her “Enchantress of Venus” (Planet Stories, Fall 1949). Silverberg acknowledged that such pieces are fun to write in a Robert E. Howard mode but aren’t his best work. Here’s James Reasoner’s take.

Dovirr Stargan is stuck on the floating city of Vythain but he really wants to be one of the Sea-Lords, roving masters of the oceans. Dovirr gets his wish then rises quickly to become leader of the courageous men fighting against the mutated mermen known as The Seaborn. The Dhuchay’y, the alien race that forced man into living in the floating reserves, are back and the Sea-Lords are prepared to fight. Dovirr will lead that counter offensive. For a longer description, go here.

Now purists may bemoan this choice, but I think it fits nicely into the mix here. Robert Silverberg started as a hack but changed his course to become one of SF’s darlings. Conquerors From the Darkness is almost like a look down an alternative timeline, where he doesn’t win a ton of Hugos but becomes a writer of exciting adventure novels. Conquerors is considered a juvenile novel by some, partly because of the age of the hero and partly because of the SF juveniles that Robert A. Heinlein and Lester Del Rey published in the 1960s. That’s fine if SF critics need that. This book could stand beside many of Andre Norton’s best. But I don’t see it that way. I see it as a suggestion of what Silverberg will do later with Lord Valentine’s Castle (1980) another SF novel that looks like a Fantasy. Like Clifford D. Simak’s Enchanted Pilgrimage (1975) or Damon Knight’s The World and Thorinn (1981), and most of Roger Zelazny’s work, these Science Fiction novels blur the line between genres.

Morlac, The Quest of the Green Magician

Morlac, The Quest of the Green Magician (1986) by Gary Alan Ruse was published by Signet, the only edition. This is a rambling book, which sounds like a criticism but I enjoy a good ramble. The tale begins with a sorcerer named Sordros creating warriors by blending dead men with sea creatures. The hero, Morlac, is a warrior made from a sea turtle and a slain warrior named Calrom. He carries his old shell as a shield and has an enchanted sword named Shark. His pal, Broct, has eight arms because he was made from an octopus. These fighters, along with Kadranna, Sordros’s adopted daughter, go on a mission to discover the North Kingdom’s war plans. The good guys succeed then need to rush home to tell the wizard. The battle causes the group to splinter as Sordros loses and flees.

That’s just the first quarter. The tales that follow are about Morlac looking for the green magician so he can turn him back into a turtle. He gathers friends as he goes along, reuniting with Broct, as well as finding the lovely werewolf, Glendauna, facing off against another wizard named Khara Rom, and ultimately concluding with the resolution with Sordros and the romantic element with Kadrana. (I won’t spoil the ending.) Our heroes do not return to the sea but lie in wait for more adventures. I contacted the author through his website and asked if he would ever write another S&S novel? He has Science Fiction and thrillers but only Morlac in the Heroic Fantasy genre. Gary said he had some ideas for a sequel to Morlac. I for one, would love to see such a book. For a longer description, go here.

Conclusion

Sword & Sorcery began as a short story subgenre. Howard only wrote one novel about Conan and a posthumous Sword & Planet in Almuric. Over at Unknown we saw more by Norvell W. Page and Jack Williamson, in the 1950s, others by L. Sprague de Camp and Poul Anderson, but it really was the 1970s and 1980s that turned Heroic Fantasy into a place for novels. Some were written about Robert E. Howard’s character but some were not. Lancer, Manor, Belmont-Tower, Zebra and ACE all put out full-length books to satisfy a craving for Tolkien, Howard and adventure Fantasy fans. The three novels here were part of that wave that would eventually result in some pretty fat bestsellers. Authors like George R. R. Martin grew up on such books (as well as plenty of comics) and brought Heroic Fantasy to a wider audience.

Sword & Sorcery from RAGE machine Books